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Wednesday, 23 January 2013

I was planning on completing Mass Effect 3 a second time to talk
about it, but every time I load it up to start, I feel horrible and I
have to stop myself. I’ve been playing Fall of the Samurai instead,
so I guess I’ll cover that next. But I’ll definitely get around
to ME3 after that.

Probably.

In writing news I’ve started a substantial edit of a project from a
couple of years ago – HS. The plan is to complete that within a
couple of months and then start work on some other stuff. The ultimate goal is
to have three more polished novels completed by the end of the year.

Sunday, 6 January 2013

I began The Witcher 2 having played, yet not completed, its
predecessor. Although there were many aspects of The Witcher that
intrigued me - the characters, story, setting and combat - the game
itself felt horribly paced, and ten or so hours in, I was left
increasingly frustrated by what seemed like an endless series of
irritating fetch quests and point A to B to C to back to A
backtracking with little in the way of plot development.

Essentially,
I gave up because I got bored. I said I’d go back and slog my way
through it one day. I’d asked around and been told that the game
does pick up significantly during its later chapters - providing you
have the patience to reach them.

So I was naturally wary of The Witcher 2. There was a lot I liked
about the first game, the question was if the developers could take
those elements, improve upon them and discard the fluff. When the
game in its ‘Enhanced Edition’ form went on sale, I decided to
give it a shot, and I discovered the answer was an emphatic YES!

Across the board, The Witcher 2 excels in all areas, leaving not only
its predecessor in the shade, but most other games too - hence why I
proclaimed it the best game I played in 2012 (although it was
originally released on PC in 2011) Graphically, The Witcher 2 is an
incredibly good looking game, featuring a variety of lush
environments, highly detailed character and creature models and a set
of fluid, exciting combat animations.

It has a wonderful soundtrack
combined with a great range of in game atmospheric sounds – from
swords clashing on the battlefield, to the banter in a village
market. On top of this you also have some of the most consistently
excellent VA I’ve seen in a game, especially considering its wide
cast and variety of characters.

The story avoids the typical ‘an ancient evil rises’ trope that
so many other fantasy based games fall into. Instead, it expertly and
maturely presents us with a story that features world changing events and the resulting political
machinations, but interwoven with a more personal story - a search
for truth, friends and justice. And unlike the first game, the story
this time is much better paced, keeping you engaged and progressing
at a steady rate.

The story also features a branching narrative which
can result in the player visiting different locations, interacting
with different characters or characters in a new manner, seeing
things from an alternative perspective, and even determine the
outcome of the game - it’s a trick many games claim, yet few create
the sense of importance and impact that decisions in The Witcher 2
manage - many of them weighing upon the player with no clear ‘right’
or ‘wrong’ solution.

The story begins with the assassination of a King, and very quickly
Geralt (a Witcher - a professional monster slayer) finds himself
drawn into a conflict that will determine the fate of the northern
kingdoms, all the while attempting to uncover the mysteries of his
own past. The story unfolds over the course of a prologue campaign
(which serves as a tutorial section), three large chapters, each set
in a new location with new enemies to face (and the second of which
can play out very differently depending on your choices in Chapter 1)
and a final, satisfying epilogue to wrap things up, but just enough
to leave you wanting more - take note, Mass Effect 3.

Alongside the main story quests are many side and optional missions
providing a depth and wealth of varied content. There are also
enjoyable mini games to take part in - fist fighting, dice and arm
wrestling. These quests, as you would expect, come with rewards such
as money and gear which can be used to enhance Geralt. Even some
seemingly minor, unimportant fetch quests can lead to larger, more
complex encounters that would put the ‘main quest’ missions in
other games to shame - take note, Skyrim.

As in other RPGs, Geralt levels up and has a skill tree enabling him
to enhance his abilities in three distinct areas - combat, magic and
alchemy. Experience points are plentiful enough to encourage
experimentation, but not enough to simply flood every tree and
acquire every ability. Certain abilities can then be further enhanced
with the use of mutagens found in the world to further tailor
Geralt’s abilities to your liking.

Although I didn’t mind the almost ‘rhythm game’ nature of the
combat system in The Witcher, the fighting mechanics in its sequel
far surpass it. Even on lower difficulty settings, fights cannot be
won through mindless clicking, but through timing, skill and tactics.
As you often find yourself facing multiple attackers, you must
quickly learn to use every tool at your disposal - there are fast and
slow attack types, parries, ripostes and dodges.

Combine those with a
variety of bomb types, blade oils and traps, each with varying
effects - and even further with the variety of performance enhancing
potions you can brew and consume - and you have an engaging, tactical
combat system that STILL manages to look bloody cool on top - take
note, Assassin’s Creed.

So yeah, it looks, sounds and plays fantastic, with a wealth and
depth of content, a strong story and great characterisation. Oh, and
some memorable and challenging ‘boss’ fights too. So what are the
negatives? Well, Chapter 2 feels a little bloated, with some
unnecessary padding and backtracking - although I only played through
one of the story paths in Chapter 2, so I’m unsure how well paced
the alternative is. Potions feel largely redundant, as you can only
use these out of combat - so unless you know what’s around the next
corner, you may not use them very often.

This also applies to traps,
which take a small moment to lay in a fight and usually aren’t
worth the risk. I played through on the default Normal setting, so
perhaps on higher difficulties these tools become more important, but
in my experience, neither was ever as useful as the simple blade
oils. Chapter Three feels rather restrictive and more linear than the
previous two, but that’s to be expected. Visiting more locations
would have also been nice, because this is a world with a lot of
history and detail, and it’s a shame we don’t get to see more of
it.

Overall, I couldn’t recommend The Witcher 2 any higher. It’s an
incredibly polished and exemplary title. It is rich in detail, deep
in content, varied, engaging, comfortably on the right side of
challenging and above all else, extremely enjoyable and rewarding to
play.

Thursday, 3 January 2013

WFTD and SOV are now complete. SOV was a largely painless affair. My
original draft was surprisingly solid and with a few tweaks and
additions here and there, I think it’s now in a fine state. WFTD
was a little more challenging, with many internal debates on the
‘right’ way to end the story. A few rewrites later, I ultimately
went with my original choices (with a couple of minor tweaks) and the
novel was complete, with an additional seven thousand words on top of
the original draft.

And with the dawn of the new year, I must now look to my next
projects. I’ve accumulated quite a body of work over the last
several years that I’ve not really done anything with, so although
I have many ideas for new books, I’ve decided to focus instead on
taking existing unfinished / unpolished work and editing and
rewriting them where necessary.

I have three initial projects in mind - NI, HS, and AO. Each already
exits in a draft form, HS in particular shouldn’t require too much
work. But NI and AO will require some significant rewrites - NI in
particular. I guess I should get started.